Have you ever had a conversation with someone who is strangely insistent about a particular viewpoint despite the fact that they have a limited amount of real knowledge on the subject - if any at all?  Enter Justin Kruger and David Dunning, both of Cornell University. The pair must have also taken note of this curious phenomenon and in 1999 published findings in support of what’s been coined the Dunning-Kruger effect.

The Dunning-Kruger effect supports Charles Darwin’s assessment that “ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.”

To prove their point, Kruger and Dunning tested groups of undergraduate students who first evaluated how well they believed they would score in the areas of logical reasoning skills, grammatical skills, and humor. It was found that while the competent students underestimated their skills, those who tested poorly had grossly overestimated. Furthermore, after being shown their test scores, those who had scored well estimated accurately while those in the bottom percentiles still overestimated.

I was tickled to run across this bit of information a few months ago as I myself had noticed this very occurrence when speaking with people about studying language. As a Spanish major who after years of study still struggled to communicate during a year abroad, I’ve always found the claim of people who say they can speak a foreign language after a couple of years of high school courses suspect.

At Taylor Studios we design and fabricate all sorts of random and interesting things. Yet even after being geared with my new found knowledge of the Dunning-Kruger effect it was just the other day that I was thinking I bet I could carve a dinosaur. I’ve seen it done once.

Posted by: Renee

Recently I started working on a life size model of a deinonychus antirrhopus. The deinonychus was an eleven-foot long dinosaur that lived during the early Cretaceous Period. Its name means terrible claw, referring to the abnormally large claw on its feet.

We’re building it for the local Orpheum Children’s Museum in Champaign. Over ten years ago, Taylor Studios built a deinonychus model for them, but twice over the past ten years it has been vandalized. So, it was time for some thing new, something that would withstand the elements and the local fraternities. More interestingly, is the fact that the concept of what these dinosaurs might have looked like has changed considerably. They are no longer a cold-blooded reptilian but are now considered to be the warm-blooded proto bird. This new theory puts an interesting twist on fabrication because there is a preconceived idea of what they looked like in the public’s eye.

The question is this: As an artist, how do I make a convincing argument that this is how they looked? The answer is references, lots of references. First and foremost, it’s important to have good photos of fossil records, so that the base is correct. Second, find photos of other artist’s renditions of deinonychus, and of similar animals. Finally, take all this information, give it an interesting pose and squeeze it into some time goals.

Posted by: Shawn H.

Jack, the purr-fect paperweight

Around 2:00 pm every afternoon, when the sun is starting to shine through the window next to my desk, I feel something furry rubbing against my leg.  Seconds later, this furry object jumps on my desk and makes himself at home on top of my to-do pile.  This fuzzy paperweight is none other than Jack, the lovable Taylor Studios cat.  When I first started working here I was a bit annoyed at how often he would come along and lay on my papers, but now I have to admit I would be a little disappointed if he didn’t come see me every day.  The little guy has kind of grown on me.

Jack has been a part of Taylor Studios for years.  He stays here all the time, even on the weekends.  He roams freely about all the offices and sleeps wherever he wants.  He likes to eat Cheetos and rubber bands so we have to be careful not to leave them lying around.  All in all he is a fun cat, and Taylor Studios definitely would not be the same without him!

Posted by: April

I was riding my four-wheeler in the woods with friends one weekend and stopped down by a creek for a break.  One of my friends looked over at this funny looking plant-it was thin, round, and stood straight as an arrow.  It was everywhere, and he claimed, “One of the weirdest plants I’ve ever seen.”

“That’s just equisetum,” I replied, “they call it horsetail; Native Americans used it to clean their teeth.”

My friend looked at me and said, “You’re not at Taylor Studios this weekend, so when I ask a question like that you just say, ‘Yeah that is a weird plant!’”

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Last year my son, who was four at the time, played soccer.  As I was watching him run down the field to go after the ball-he stops dead in his tracks.  A butterfly flew right in front of him and he had to watch that butterfly as it flew by his head.  As the rest of his team ran down the field to try to score, he looked over to me and yelled, “Hey Dad, LOOK there’s a Monarch butterfly.”  I didn’t know if I should be proud or yell at him to get his head in the game.  I then thought, wow, he’s 4-years-old and can identify a Monarch butterfly. Maybe he does listen to me when I point things out. He’ll probably be the kid that gets beat up a lot on account of his geeky dad.

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My point here is not to illustrate my lack of a life or that I am consumed by work, but rather to show how my life and work are connected.  Most people do everything they can to separate the two, but let’s face it, we spend the majority of our lives at work!   I happen to be lucky enough to do something that I love, something that allows me to learn about this world we live in, something that allows me to share that learning with the people around me.

Even if that makes me a HUGE GEEK!

10 Reasons Why I love my Job:

1. The reaction of visitors when they see our product.
2. The reaction of our clients at the end of a project.
3. The reaction I get when people ask me what I do for a living.
4. I get to see the world.
5. I learn something new every day, regardless of whether I wanted to learn it!
6. I’m surrounded by extremely talented, gifted, and passionate people who create amazing things.
7. I get to do something that is both extremely challenging and fun.
8. I meet interesting people and work in interesting places.
9. The product I help to design and produce educates and informs the public.
10. I get to do what I love and follow a passion.

Posted by: Jason